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Posted by Mark Fisher
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12:00 PM Tuesday, 08 January 2008 |
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 Queensryche, a hard rock band renowned for such intelligent works as Operation: Mindcrime and Empire and such classic metal albums as The Warning and Promised Land, floundered throughout much of the late nineties and early new millennium. The band has experienced a revival since switching labels to Rhino Records a few years ago and the latest in their barrage of new albums is entitled Take Cover. This album of cover songs follows the warmly received Operation: Mindcrime II and, yet another, "best of" album.
To call Take Cover a mixed bag would be an understatement of epic proportions. There is a lot to criticize about this album, especially for longtime fans, but in the interest of fairness, let's start with what's good. The good is when Queensryche stay within the realm of what vocalist Geoff Tate is capable of sounding good on. Although not immediately striking this list includes Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" (after a few listens you really do get used to it), Queen's "Innuendo," and Black Sabbath's "Neon Knights." These are songs that definitely influenced Queensryche's core sound and, for the most part, Tate soars when he sings them.
Unfortunately what happens here is that my mind keeps wandering away from the good and wondering where this album all went so wrong. Most of this album will simply make your jaw drop...in a bad way. The most glowing examples are the covers of Andrew Lloyd -Webber's "Heaven On Their Minds" and the Italian opera song "Odissea." I can't even fathom why these songs would have made the album. As if that wasn't enough, Tate attempts to get in touch with his funky side on the classic "For the Love of Money" and, baby, he ain't even Marq Torrien.
There are some moments here that don't make you excited or afraid as well. Peter Gabriel's "Red Rain" and U2's "Bullet the Blue Sky" aren't as rough as you'd expect but certainly fit the Queensyrche aura. If you take out the opening lines, that only Sting can do, of "Synchronicity II" it'd be a whole different song so I'll offer up some praise there as well but realistically this is an album that a revived band shouldn't have made. The band had a lot of momentum leading into this but this won't sit well with new or longtime fans. If you're thinking about this, I recommend selecting the songs you want from iTunes in lieu of the album route.
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